Drew started to open his mouth to say that he knew Rose was really good at Spellwork, and that she had done an amazing job setting up the beach party. The sand alone must have taken a lot of magic, and Drew was pretty sure it was hard to make water behave any kind of way for hours like Rose had. It was the kind of thing that she should be able to show to Aaron to get extra credit or an automatic O on the practical part of her final or something. Drew wasn’t sure whether or not Connor had gone to the party and seen the beach, but Drew guessed that he hadn’t. If this conversation was teaching Drew anything, it was that Connor Farnon was probably not a lot of fun at parties.

But Drew didn’t get to say anything about the beach after all, because Connor veered off on a weird tangent. “I just think it’s highly inappropriate that Professor McKindy holds office hours. No offense meant, you obviously hold no personal fault.”

Drew thought very hard about it for a moment, but couldn’t figure out why Connor would think that or why Drew would be offended by it. Was it because Connor thought spellwork was the most basic kind of magic, so everyone should be able to figure it out on their own? That seemed kind of harsh. Also Drew hadn’t gone to office hours, Aaron’s or anyone else’s, because a) he was doing okay in all of his classes and b) that was a lot more effort than he was willing to spend on boring things. So Drew wasn’t sure why Connor would like, be trying to shame him for going to office hours, because 1) that was stupid and 2) it wasn’t even true.

So then Connor must mean another reason why it would be “inappropriate” for Aaron to have office hours, and why Drew would be offended. But Drew couldn’t think of anything that made sense, so he just said, “I mean, I’m not in charge of it. But all of the professors hold office hours so people can get help if they need it. Why wouldn’t Professor McKindy?”

It seemed like Drew was confused about what was going on, which in turn confused Connor. What could possibly be unclear about what he just said? Connor was an extremely direct person; he always said... more

Connor looked confused, which was about how Drew felt. It seemed sort of unfair for Connor to get to be confused now when he was the whole reason the conversation had gotten weird and confusing. Drew ... more

If Connor had thought he was confused before, he had clearly underestimated the situation because now Drew was talking about how Professor McKindy had taught at a bunch of other schools. Was he... more

Connor had decided to be condescending to Drew, which the first-year decided he really didn’t like at all. The older student was just making things up! That was really dumb and rude. “You don’t even... more

Families were confusing because Connor knew how they were supposed to go, and he was pretty sure that most of his family’s problems were related to not having a family the way they were supposed to... more

Connor was wrong and stupid and Drew wasn’t good enough at arguing to tell him why. “Your dad is supposed to be a role model for you,” he said, to start with. All fathers were in a position to be... more

Connor flushed a dark, angry red. He knew Marley was bad. He knew Marley was very bad, and quite honestly he didn’t know how Claudia could deal with her but what this conversation with Drew was... more

There were a couple of seconds before Drew really processed what Connor had said. Then Drew clenched his fists. No one had ever actually said it about his family before as far as Drew could remember, ... more

Drew decided, apparently, that it was a good idea to fully demonstrate just how awful he was because not only did Drew choose to use an absolutely rude word towards Connor, but he also bludgeoned... more

Drew was almost at the stairs. He was hoping that the stairs wouldn’t screw up today and mess up his exit. They had messed up a few times for Dade lately. The older boy would go up the stairs to the... more

It was about three seconds between the words leaving Connor’s mouth and Drew practically running toward him to hit him. At first, Connor was shocked. He had never actually been hit before, not like... more